Electricity prices for households in the European Union (EU) rose by 4.6 percent between January 2005 and January 2006, while prices for industry increased by 15.5 percent over the same period, said Eurostat, the EU's statistical service, on Friday.

The household prices included all taxes while the prices for industry excluded value-added tax.

Over a longer timespan, household and industrial electricity prices in the older 15 EU member states rose by 9 percent and 31 percent respectively between January 2000 and January 2006.

Price changes between January 2005 and January 2006 varied significantly between member states. For households, the largest price rises were observed in Cyprus (31.4 percent), Malta (23.3 percent) and Britain (14.2 percent), while prices remained stable in Latvia and Lithuania and fell in Belgium and Austria.

Prices for industry increased by more than a quarter between January 2005 and January 2006 in Cyprus, Britain, Sweden and Belgium, while prices remained stable in France, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta and fell in Finland and Slovakia.

In absolute values, household electricity prices were highest in January 2006 in Denmark with 23.62 euros (29.7 US dollars) per 100 KWH, followed by Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. The lowest prices were observed in Greece with 7.01 euros(8.8 dollars).

When adjusted for purchasing power, household electricity prices in Greece remained the cheapest, followed by Britain, Finland and France.

The highest prices in terms of purchasing power were recorded in Slovakia, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands.

In absolute values, industrial electricity prices were highest in Italy, Cyprus and Ireland, and lowest in the three Baltic States.

However, when adjusted for purchasing power, Hungary and Cyprus recorded the highest industrial electricity prices, and Finland and Sweden the lowest.

Source: Xinhua